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63d Congress) 
3d Session f 



SENATE 



Document 

No. 662 



MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP 



STATEMENT 

OF 

WILSON L. GILL, LL B. 

IN RELATION TO MORE EFFICIENT CITIZEN- 
SHIP, THROUGH DIRECT TRAINING 
FOR IT IN THE SCHOOLS 

AND IN SUPPORT OF 

AN AMENDMENT INTENDED TO BE PROPOSED BY MR. OWEN 

TO THE BILL (H. R. 19909) MAKING APPROPRIATIONS 

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL 

EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE 

FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1916 

AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 




PRESENTED BY MR. OWEN 
December 22, 1914. — Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1915 



V 



D. OF D 

m 9 1915 



MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP 

THROUGH DIRECT TRAINING FOR IT IN THE SCHOOLS. 



[Amendment intended to be proposed by Mr. Owen to the bill (H. R. 19909) making appropriations for 
the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1916, and for otherpurposes: Insert the following: " For investigation and promotion of efficient instruc- 
tion in citizenship, including personal services in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, $25,000."] 



A STATEMENT BY WILSON L. GILL, LL. B. 



American Patriotic League. 

Incorporated under law of Congress, 1891. 
TO PROMOTE MORAL AND CIVIC TRAINING IN ALL SCHOOLS. 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A. 

[Wilson L. GUI, president, 501 West Mount Pleasant Avenue, Mount Airy , Pa. Lymsn Beecher Stowe, sec- 
retary. H. M. Hill, financial secretary. Coimcil: Ernest K. Coulter, New York; Admiral George 
Dewey, U. S. Navy; President Wm. H. P. Faunce, Brown University; Dean Geo. W. Kirehwey, LL. D., 
Columbia University; Judge Ben. B. Lindsey, Colorado; Hon. Levi P. Morton, New York; Hon. Gifford 
Pinchot, Peimsylvania; Rev. Thomas R. Slicerj New Yorlc; Josiah Strong, D. D., New York; Maj. 
Gen. Leonard Wood, U. S. Army. School republic committee: Ludwig B. Bernstein, Thomas S. Crane, 
Frederic R. KeUogg (chairman), Geo. W. Kirehwey, Henry M. Leipziger, Daniel T. Pierce, Luis Munos 
Rivera, Wm. Ives Washburn, Judge E. P.. WUcox.] 

December 9, 1914. 
Hon. KoBERT L. Owen, 

Washington, D. C. 

My Dear Sir: I have seen with great interest and respect, that 
you have been wilhng to recognize the value and importance of expert 
work, and to use it for the good of the people. This encourages me 
to believe that you wih gladly recognize certain expert work in a 
direction quite as vital to the welfare of the whole people as any 
thing that has ever come for the consideration of the United States 
Congress. 

I refer to the matter of vastly improving the efficiency of citizenship 
throughout the United States. It is generally supposed that the pubhc 
schools, colleges and universities are actually attending to this. It is 
for this, primarily, that they exist. It will not be denied that they edu- 
cate the individual in various ways and give him a considerable fund 
of information. But the primary object is not gained. It is a 
notorious fact that as a whole, with few exceptions, college men will 
not, if they can avoid it, serve on juries, and they will not attend 
primary meetings or vote at local elections. In the lower walks of 
life the situation is more serious. 

As a student in social and political science I investigated this 
matter, discovered the roots of the evil, saw the necessary and only 
possible remedy, and put it to a test with 1,100 school children in 
New York City, with entirely satisfactory results. For the United 



4 . MOKE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP. 

States War Department I made the application with greatest satis- 
faction to the department in more than 3,600 schoohooms in Cuba. 
For the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I began the same work in the Indian 
schools, and the United States Commissioner of Education is applying 
it in all the Government schools in Alaska. The method is used in 
many schools throughout the United States, in some orphan asylums 
and reform schools, and in some schools in many countries. It is 
estimated that about 100,000 children in New York City are receiving 
this kind of instruction. 

The children of a schoolroom are made citizens of a republic, which 
may have the form of a village, town, county, city, or other form. 
This little repullic, without detracting from the teacher's authority, 
is given legislative, executive, and judicial power. The children are 
made to understand that there can be no thoroughly successful 
citizenship except that it is based on the practice of the golden rule, 
which must be interpreted as meaning not only that they must be 
honest, just and kind, but also clean in every respect, nicluding their 
language, conduct and thoughts. They legislate in relation to their 
own conduct, and elect officers at short intervals to enforce their laws 
and others to adjudicate difficulties. The organization is exceedingly 
simple, with only three officers, or more developed, according to 
circumstances. Several school-room republics may be joined m a 
State, and several States in a national government. 

I think the Government ought to foster this work systematically, 
rather than piecemeal as in the past. The United States Commis- 
sioner of Education believes this can be done through his office, with 
an appropriation of $12,500. This would be a good though rather 
parsimonious beginning, and I submit his suggestion, for an amend- 
ment of the appropriation bill, as follows: ''For investigation and 
promotion of efficiency, instruction and training in citizenship, 
mcluding personal services in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, 
$12,500." The intention is to expend this as follows: Salary of 
specialist, $4,500; assistant, $2,500; clerk, $1,500; traveling and other 
expenses, $4,000. As the Government has made so large a test, it 
seems to me that it is fully justffied in taking hold of this matter on 
this or almost any scale. 

It seems to me that the vastness of the importance of this matter 
is such that, following the precedent of the Children's Bureau, it 
should be handled by a separate bureau. In that case I should hope 
that the appropriation would be for as much as $25,000, providing 
for several more workers, as the field is very large, including schools 
in the United States, Porto Rico, Philippines, Indian, and other 
Government schools, and, as a m.atter of mternational comity and 
defense, the schools of other countries when we are invited to assist, 
as I have been personally by school and government officials of six 
American Republics, six European countries, four Asiatic, and 
several British colonies in various parts of the world. 

Should these ideas have your approval, I hope you will care to 
secure the printing of the accompanying paper as a Senate document, 
and, if you think best, this letter as a preface. 
Very truly, yours, 

Wilson L. Gill. 



MORE EFETCIENT CITIZENSfflP THROUGH DIRECT TRAINING 
/ FOR IT IN THE SCHOOLS. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America: 

"In the present crisis in the struggle between the people and power- 
ful special privilege the training and education of the people in self- 
government is an essential and a necessary foundation of their 
success." 

Through the school-republic system, in successful use for the past 
-17 years, children are accorded self-government under instruction. 
The appeal, when properly made, to children in the kindergarten or 
students in college to take up their citizenship is certain to be met 
with a hearty response, since practicall}'" all normal children have a 
large latent desire for justice always ready to be called into activity. 
They gladly assume responsibility for their own conduct. They will, 
not permit bullying, hazing, truancy, the defacement or destruction 
of public or private property, dropping fruit skins or spitting on side- 
walks, littering the streets, marking up houses and fences with chalk, 
or other offenses against public and private rights and property. 
They develop their own sense of justice and independence of thought 
and action, and both initiative and cooperation for every good pur- 
pose. High-school children understand these matters easily and kin- 
dergarten children thoroughly understand some of them. 

In 1897 I worked out this problem in a New York City public 
school. Since then the United States, through several of its depart- 
ments and bureaus, has used this democratic method to produce a 
better spirit and greater economy and efficiency in all school work 
and to develop better moral and civic conditions. The official re- 
ports pubhshed by the Government testify to the most satisfactory 
results. 

The man who has had the largest official experience with this 
method is Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood. On him rested the responsi- 
biUty of cleaning Cuba, driving out the mosquitoes and yeUow fever, 
and thus protecting the people of our Southern States from the 
annual threat of a yeUow-fever epidemic, which always came from 
Cuban ports; of giving to the people who had been fighting half 
a century for freedom a better citizenship than that which has been 
so much in evidence in Mexico and Central America, which would 
keep the island clean and free from periodical armed revolutions. 

He could not get at the grown people directly to instruct them for 
these purposes, but he could indirectly, through the children. He 
engaged me, the originator of the school-republic method, to organize 
every pubHc school in Cuba (more than 3,600 schoolrooms) as 
republics, in which the pupils became citizens. The children made 
la,ws for their own conduct in the school, the street, their homes, 




6 MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP. 

everywhere. They elected executive and jiKheial officers. They 
learned that perfect citizenship must be based on \be practice of the 
golden rule, and that must be interpreted as meanii^g they must be 
honest, just, and kind to every person, everywhere; ^nd that they 
must be clean in every respect — bodies, clothing, hoisies, streets, 
language, and thoughts. 

As the children in the slums of Few York helped Col. Waring clean 
the city, so the children from one end of Cuba to the other, with the 
greatest enthusiasm, helped Gen. Wood clean their island. The 
parents caught the chidren's enthusiasm, and the dirt, mosquitoes, 
and yellow fever disappeared as if by magic. 

This spirit of active citizenship enables the children to more fully 
appreciate the purpose and value of their school and to cooperate 
for better conditions. When these results are secured, they are 
accompanied by greater interest in the school and in the community 
on the part of the pupils, greater economy in the vital force of both 
teachers and children, and greater efhciency in every direction. 

A schoolroom is the unit of organization. The little republic 
may have the form of a village, town, county, or city. A brief 
charter of directions is furnished the teacher and pupils. When 
properly presented to the pupils they adopt it as their own, unani- 
mously and heartily, they gladly accept the responsibilities under 
it, and they loyally support the officers whom they have elected to 
execute the laws and settle difficulties. It provides for a mayor or 
other chief magistrate, a judge and an officer to preside at the meet- 
ings of the legislative body, which is composed of all the pupils. 
These three officers are all that are necessary, but it is provided that 
they may have others, such as a clerk for each of the three divisions 
of government, officers of the peace, health, cleanliness, public works, 
games, librarian, and any others for whom special duties may be 
found. The commission form of government is used in some schools. 
The elections are of great educational value and are frequent. 

The teacher does not become a citizen of the little republic any 
more than he would become a member of the class in reading. He 
is teacher in this as in other school work, but as he helps the children 
to become independent in solving the problems of arithmetic, so he 
helps them to become independent as soon as possible in solving 
the problems of their daily life, and in both cases is always on hand 
to point out errors and to help them follow the right course. 

There is generally a meeting of the legislative body once a week. 
This takes 15 minutes, more or less, according to circumstances. If 
time is provided in the curriculum for moral or civic teaching, the 
functions of government are attended to in this time. The respon- 
sibilities of citizenship are continuous, as in the case of grown people. 
^ The charter given in A New Citizenship, which I have written to 
give the history, philosoph;^, and apphcation of the school-republic 
method, contains the following brief code of — 

LAWS OP PERSONAL CONDUCT. 

Chapter I. — The General Law. 

Section 1. Do good to others, whatever they do to you. This natural law, without 
which no popular government can succeed, is the general law to which all other laws 
and regulations must conform. 



MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP. 

Chapter II. — Things Prohibited. 
Section 1. Do no wrong to anyone. 



Sec. 2. Anything which disturbs the order in halls, classrooms, or in any place 
within the jurisdiction of this government, is prohibited. 

Sec. 3. Anything which is profane, rude, immodest, impure, impolite, or unkind 
to any living creature is prohibited. 

CLEANLINESS. 

Sec. 4. Anything which detracts from the neat and orderly appearance of our 
community is prohibited. 

HEALTH. 

Sec. 5. Anything which detracts from the healthful condition of our community 
is prohibited. 

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY. 

Sec. 6. Anything which mars or destroys property is prohibited. 

Chapter III. — Duties. 

Section 1. It is the duty of all citizens to be loyal, obedient, and faithful to every 
branch of their Government, from that of the United States of America and their own 
State, to their own school republic, and to all lawful authority; to endeavor to make 
good laws and to observe them; to use their best judgment in choosing officers; when 
chosen to any office, to accept the responsibility and to perform the duties thereof 
to the best of their ability; to encourage and help their officers without reference to 
the way their individual votes have been cast; when summoned to appear in court, 
to comply and give every reasonable assistance to enable the judge to discover the 
truth and to arrive at a just decision, whatever their relation may be to the case; to 
abide by the judgment of the court, when approved by the teacher or principal of 
the school; to perform faithfully and to the best of their ability all the duties of citizen- 
ship; and in all affairs to observe the golden rule. 

Chapter IV. — Punishment. 

Section 1. Any citizen violating any law of this government shall be subject to 
punishment not less than a reprimand and not greater than the withdrawal of the 
rights of citizenship. 

Sec. 2. No punishment shall be carried into execution before it has been approved 
by the teacher or principal of the school, and then it must be put into effect promptly. 

The method of applying these principles is very simple and requires 
no more skill or tact than to teach any other branch, but it does 
require as much attention and enthusiasm on the part of the teacher 
as is necessary to make a success of any other school work. This is 
not unsupported theory. It is knowledge gained through 17 years' 
experience with the method. This experience warrants the further 
statement that some teachers who have found it difficult or impossi- 
ble to maintain order in the school by the ordinary method of com- 
pulsion find no difficulty in doing so by this method. Not every 
teacher, but teachers in general, occasionally need advice and encour- 
agement by a supervisor who is skilled in this work. 

Academic teaching by patriotic songs, salute to the flag, recita- 
tions from books on civics and history, lectures, etc., are all good, 
but they are not enough. To the academic must be added the labo- 
ratory method, which is such constant, systematic practice under 
instruction of that which is right as will result in fixed habits of 
honesty, justice, kindness, independence, and cooperation for every 



8 MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP. 

good purpose. The academic is old, the laboratory is new and dis- 
tinct, and is needed to vitalize the academic, which it does splendidly, 
but that the whole people may have the benefit of it, it must be pro- 
vided for in the curriculum by national. State, and local legislation. 

The growth of civilization by the ordinary means_ of evolution is 
very slow. The introduction of any improvement in methods has 
been a matter of centuries. The appeal for improvement has been 
made to adults, whose habits of thought and action have been estab- 
lished in childhood, before anjr conclusive appeal came to them. It 
is difficult for any person and impracticable for most to change any 
habit. 

It is a comparatively easy matter to guide a little child to make 
good habits for his whole fife. It is but recently that there has been 
any adequate means for reaching children in general for this purpose. 
The pubDc schools, rapidly extending in our own and other countries, 
are adequate means. There has been no efficient method for their 
use tiU now, but the school repubUc or democratic method is both 
economic and efficient for this purpose, and adds greatly to the total 
happiness of the children's daily life. 

It is constructive of right as well as destructive of wrong, for it 
begins early in child life before the habits have been established, and 
when properly used, tends to fiU the child's waking hours so full of 
valuable thoughts and activities, that there is but little room in which 
weeds may grow. It is not merely reformatory. For instance, it 
prevents his forming the habit of dropping fruit skins on the side- 
walk, which frequently cause serious accidents to men and women; 
of dropping any kind of litter in the streets ; of taking chalk from the 
blackboard and marking up houses, fences, lamp-posts, etc.; of using 
bad words; of quarreling and fighting; of throwing stones at birds, 
animals, windows, and at each other; and of other annoying things 
which the teacher can not reach, but which are both social and civic 
wrongs. All of these things and many more are fuUy within the com- 
prehension of 4-year-old kindergarten children. By this method 
of democracy, children easily, gladly, and effectually prevent wrongs 
which ordinarily develop in the grammar grades, such as profanity 
and vulgar language; cigarette smoking; writing, drawing, and cir- 
culating improper notes and pictures; and such things as result in 
more serious wrongs in high schools. 

The following testimony is conclusive as to the social and political 
importance of this form of democracy as an educational force in the 
schools : 

In 1913 Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood wrote the following concerning 
his experience with the school republic in Cuba : 

The results were most satisfactory; indeed they were so satisfactory that I unhesi- 
tatingly commend the idea as worthy of the most serious consideration. The results 
were far-reaching and valuable, and are fully set forth in my various reports as mili- 
tary governor of Cuba and the reports of the officials at the head of the public-school 
system of the island. 

This system would, I believe, be especially valuable in all schools, and would 
result in our children being much better equipped for the discharge of their civic 
responsibilities. 

April 15, 1914, Gen. Wood wrote the chief of the Bureau of Insular 
Affairs : 



MORE EFFICIENT CITIZElSrSHIP. 9 

I am_ confident it is a system well worth trying out in our insular possessions, teach- 
ing as it does discipline and being founded on a habitual submission to the majority, 
a mental condition which is absolutely essential to the establishment of any form of 
self-government. 

On the same day (April 15) Gen. Wood said to a group of officers 
of the General Staff: 

If Mexico had had the school republic in all her schools for 10 years, as we have 
had it for two years in Cuba, the present troubles would never have arisen. 

Judge Ben B, Lindsey, than whom there is no higher authority in 
such matters, says: 

I am one of those in a peculiar position to appreciate the value of the school republic. 
When this idea is properly presented and applied it at once becomes a wonderful 
contribution to good citizenship. I do not know a better wish that I could make for 
our children than to wish A New Citizenship the widest possible circulation. 

Walter C. Shields, superintendent for the Department of the 
Interior of the northwest district of Alaska, wrote at Nome, October 
27, 1913: 

_TMs winter I expect to see the school republic in operation in all the schools in the 
district. I wish you could see how splendidly it is adapted to our needs here. 

The following is an extract from the official report received by the 
United States Commissioner of Education November 30, 1914, from 
Wain Wright, on the Arctic coast of Alaska: 

The school republic has done wonders for these scholars. They grew by leaps and 
bounds in self-confidence and overcame their false timidity and fear of being heard. 
Every Friday afternoon meeting was an improvement on the preceding one, until 
they would conduct their meetings in parliamentary order without my assistance. 
They made and executed their own laws, elected their own officers for a period of one 
month, salaried and paid them weekly. At first they had to be told every move to 
make and were afraid to speak in an audible tone, but by patient effort such difficul- 
ties were overcome. 

I append the following rules and penalties, officers and their duties, etc., which will 
give you a general idea of our working basis. These could be profitably commented 
upon. Now, this, simple as it may seem, has accomplished wonders in this school this 
year in many ways. Industry, cleanliness, economy, good deportment, self-i'eliance, 
punctuality, neatness, obedience, appreciation, honesty, truthfulness, kindness, and 
kindred admirable traits have come to tJie front. In fact, it has straightened matters 
out in general. We don't see how we could well have gotten along without it. 

In the commissioner's report on Alaska, just printed (Dec, 1914), 
appears, on page 36, the following: 

District Superintendent W. C. Shields sent a pamphlet on self-government, by 
Wilson L. Gill, and said: "Adopt this for use and report your success." It was 
adopted. * * * Self-government had to be employed as a detail in school man- 
agement. * * * The duties which the citizens were elected to perform were 
sufficiently numerous for each citizen to have a duty. * * * It was amusing to 
see a stubby little 12-year-old police officer bring to school a man-grown truant. The 
schoolroom was kept open from 9 a. m. till 8 p. m. every day; when school was not 
in session the schoolroom served as a sort of clubroom. One or more of the police 
officers was always present, and the room was always orderly. Citizens might read, 
write, sew, play games, or do whatever they liked, but they must never be idle. 

The school republic seems to be the problem of school management solving itself. 
It increases school efficiency, adds enthusiasm, and answers the teacher's question, 
How shall I do without an assistant? 

On page 38 of same report another teacher writes : 
The innovation was of material assistance to the teacher. 

Another teacher reports, on page 47: 

The children like this new organization very much, indeed. 



10 MORE EFFICIENT CITIZENSHIP. 

Louis P. Nash, head master of a Boston school district, made the 
following statement, after 13 years' use of this method: 

My experience and observation of the school republic is that it is altogether useful 
and not at all harmful. Its intellectual advantages are many. Its moral advantages 
are more considerable. 

David Snedden, Massachusetts commissioner of education, has 

written : 

The miniature school community becomes a miniature state, and tne children learn 
to appreciate self-made laws and to contribute to their enforcement. I_ am profoundly 
convinced of the rightness of these ideas, and of th.e fact tnat they are in line with the 
best sociological thinking of our time. 

A more strict, earnest, and heartily responsive discipline may be 
maintained in every school, shop and Army and Navy organization 
by means of democracy in the ranks than by the authority alone 
of teachers, foremen and officers. This democracy properly intro- 
duced and supervised, will uphold and strengthen the authority of 
and the respect for teachers, foremen and officers. 

It works for economy as well as efficiency in every direction. It' 
is inexpensive. It does not call for buildings, apparatus, clothing, 
food, or teachers, but only a change of methods, from the ancient 
monarchical tyranny to the modern democracy; but at the same 
time, as I have said, it does not weaken, but it strengthens and 
enforces the authority of teachers and officers. 

Universal and permanent peace, internal as well as international, 
can be hastened by democracy in all schools. 

This can be used to excellent advantage to increase efficiency and 
improve the esprit de corps at West Point, Annapolis, Newport, in 
aU Indian and other Government schools, in all public and private 
schools, in all reform schools and prisons, and among the enhsted 
men in the Army and Navy; and efficiency in American citizenship 
demands it in every school for young people and in aU colleges and 
universities. 

It is needed in the schools of the District of Columbia, in justice 
to the children, and as an example to the schools of the United States, 
and to all foreign diplomats resident in Washington. It needs a 
few men of large caliber and the right kind of experience, supported 
by clerical assistance and printed matter, to attend to the needs 
of our Nation in this matter of training in democracy, and these 
men should have enough common sense, gentility, and tact to get 
the attention, the interest, and the enthusiastic cooperation of 
foreign diplomats. Such men can not be found by the dozen, at 
$2,500 each, but there are a few such men who can be enlisted at 
very small cost as compared with that of men of similar fitness in 
the professions and in commercial business. 

An appropriation of $12,500, to be expended by a commissioner 
of citizenship, connected possibly with the Department of State, 
or by the Commissioner of Education, could accomplish a very 
important work. Double this amount would multiply the good 
results by at least four, and maybe a great deal more. A stiU larger 
sum could be used to splendid advantage. 

While teachers and all school authorities should be encouraged 
by every means to adopt this method independently, and the work 
must be accomplished through the schools, no one ought to allow 



MORE EFFICIENT CITIZEIsrSHIP. 11 

himself to be blinded by these facts to the immensely important 
fact that this is not an educational detail to be settled by school 
men. They will do their part gladly, when directed to do so by 
competent authority. This is primarily a matter of pubHc pohcy 
and of statesmanship that must be provided for by the United 
States Congress and the State legislatures. It is fundamental and 
it is vital to the highest welfare of this Nation and of every other 
nation on earth. 

Wilson L. Gill. 



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